Perchance to Dream
by rogue-scholar07
Summary: Set after A Meeting in Captivity. Valtor's time spent in the Omega dimension consisted of dreaming up ways to repay the Company of Light for his imprisonment and finding out what had become of his beloved daughter. Those dreams started to take shape in reality when the Trix crash-landed on the prison world and freed him from the ice.


**Slight alteration to the main canon RAI/4kids universe, set after my oneshot A Meeting in Captivity. It's not necessary that you read that before moving on to this one, but I would recommend that you get around to reading the both of them at some point. **

**I do not own any of the characters or locations presented in this story and do not make any profit by posting this story. **

**Perchance to Dream**

Contrary to what those who worked in the prison world known as the Omega Dimension believed, the people forever encased in ice and stone there were not unconscious. They knew what was going on around them. Took note of when changes in guards; observed whenever one of the higher-ups in charge came down for a security sweep. But that only entertained the wizard known as Valtor for a few months. After that, his observations took a more introspective turn.

It had been years since he'd been condemned to this place. Seventeen years, to be precise. Seventeen long years since Griffin second guessed the coven's motives and left, leaving both he and their three-year-old daughter behind. Seventeen years since he'd last seen his child's beautiful golden eyes.

He understood why Griffin felt the need to abandon the cause. Becoming a mother had re-arranged the violet-haired witch's priorities, and as a result, she no longer felt comfortable with causing so much destruction that she reasoned to be senseless. Usually they just stole artifacts and fought off guards, but the last job before she left had involved destroying the home of a prominent supporter of the then newly-formed Company of Light. His family had been home, and despite her efforts to save them, one of the fellow's children perished in the fire. Then the plan to slaughter the heirs of Domino's royal line came to light, and Griffin bolted during a mission. He knew she'd tried to find their daughter after that, but even he didn't know where the Ancestral Coven had hidden little Darcy away. The last time he saw the child was right before her mother decided to switch sides.

Ah, Darcy. She was the light of his life, both then and now. He often thought about her, what she would be like now that she was a grown woman. Had she been able to attend a proper magical college? Or had the coven decided that releasing her into the world was too great a risk? What was she like? Did she hate Griffin and him for "abandoning" (far from it, but he knew what it would seem like) her?

His trip down memory lane was rudely interrupted when something crashed from the sky. His frozen eyes couldn't see, but despite the weakened state of his magical core at present, he knew that whatever that was hadn't behaved like the normal transport pods. The pod material was there, but that wasn't how the pods behaved. From the feel of it, the lazy guards had overlooked something significant and were about to pay for it.

The impact shocks rattled the frozen world, but his frozen form didn't move. The magic binding him in this form strictly prohibited any movement on his part. Three somethings hit the ground in a near-simultaneous manner and released a shed-load of magical energy. Whatever had thwarted the security measures was powerful. Shame they probably wouldn't waste their time on him.

He could sense them, but not hear them. Three powerful, female magical beings were moving in his direction. Their powers were similar to that of the Ancestresses…but not. These ladies possessed more dilute powers in comparison to the first known witches, but the similarities were too glaring to ignore. Perhaps these girls had been chosen by the coven to be the Avatars of the Ancestresses? Given extra boosts and training lessons due to their similar power sources?

In a sudden burst of power, the icy exo-skeletal prison binding him cracked and fell to the floor. As he blinked to shake the cobwebs out of his mind, the three witches ducked behind him and pushed him forward toward the oncoming ice snakes.

"Sorry dude, but it's you or us!" One of the ladies called out as he stumbled forward. The snake-like guardian reared its head up and launched an ice beam, but he was prepared for that. A swift and powerful counter attack was launched. In short order, the three attacking prison guards were disabled.

The three witches turned to face him at about the same time he ventured a look at them. The tallest one, a silvery-haired young woman with a pale complexion and apparently the ability to control ice smirked at him. "Nice work, Goth guy." She spoke, voice soft as velvet but with a steely undertone. She was a dangerous, confident leader. Much like Belladonne had been, back in the day.

He posed with a flourish, relishing in the chance to be able to move after spending so long under ice. "Thank you." He closed his eyes as his left hand rubbed the back of his neck. It would take him a few hours to work off the after-effects of being trapped under ice for almost two decades.

"How long were you in there?" The woman standing to the ice witch's right commented as her grey-green eyes wide looked him over. She was the shortest of the three, dressed in dark red and pink hues and having blue-violet curly hair styled to look like a storm cloud. He could sense her aura as plainly as he did her coven-mate, and swiftly determined that she had the power over storms.

"Seventeen years." He answered but wasn't afforded any time to say anything further. Belladonne's successor was in a chatty (or inquisitive; however you wanted to look at it) mood.

"Were you awake the whole time?" She quirked an eyebrow and pointed at him with her right index finger. The more he studied her, the more she reminded him of the daughter of another member of the old Coven. It could be the same child for all he knew; it had been seventeen years since he'd seen any members of the old group.

"Yes." He hadn't moved, but they hadn't given him much of a chance to do so either.

"Sounds boring." The third witch, a brunette dressed in shades of violet, remarked, holding her hands out away from her body. Odd. She looked intimately familiar to him, but he couldn't force his mind to reveal her identity.

"It gives you time to think." He offered a nearly imperceptible shrug to the woman. Like with the other three, hers was easy to sense: an aura of darkness and deception. With the glasses and the penchant for violet clothes, she reminded him quite strongly of his former lover. She even had Griffin's nose.

He felt a shiver run down his spine that had nothing to do with the cold climate. The girl in front of him was a brunette version of what Griffin had looked like as a young woman. A girl with his eyes, Griffin's facial structure, and the power over darkness—she couldn't be anyone but his Darcy.

"About what?" He was rudely brought out of his epiphany by the scoffing yet curious tone of the young storm witch. If he recalled correctly, her name was Stormy, a playmate of Darcy's when they were toddlers. That would make the cool, deadly calm leader Icy.

"Mostly about whom you're going to pay back and how." He looked at the trio with one sweeping glance, not wanting to give too much away. He already knew a fair bit about them. Icy was clearly the leader of the coven and had an ego to match her power level, Stormy was proving to be as wild and impatient as the force of nature she commanded, and Darcy was the cunning one who would turn on the other two given a good enough reason. She was more subdued than her coven-mates, but by no means less powerful or intelligent. She just preferred to mastermind the plans from afar rather than attack it directly.

As he spoke, Icy woman noticed a sign on the ground and bent over to pick it up. "So you're Valtor." Her expression changed from one of mild curiosity to dogged determination. "What do you say we blow our way out of this popsicle stand together?"

"Sure. I'll lead the way out" He barely got the words out when she began talking over him again.

"Hold up!" Anger flashed in her pale eyes. "I'm no fool. You're obviously packing some power, and we stand a much better chance of breaking out of here if we team up. But **don't** give us orders."

"Yeah, that would be a big mistake." Stormy tried to offer a scary glare, but came off looking more constipated than anything else. Darcy had the glare down much better than either of her sister witches. Of course, being the product of his and Griffin's genetic material, he expected nothing less.

"Of course." He soothed their anxieties as he turned his back to them. "I would be _foolish_ to think otherwise." Far from the truth; they were foolish if they thought he would bow down to them simply because they had freed him of his imprisonment. However, as he began to lead them to the nearest portal (which lead straight to Andros), his eyes and Darcy's met. Her desire to speak to him in a more private setting once they were free shone like moonlight reflecting of the ocean.

So she did know who he was, yet hadn't told her sister witches about him. His life was about to get very interesting, if the events of the last ten minutes were any indication.


End file.
